


this jackal doesn't need to hide

by BabaTunji



Category: Black Panther (2018), Black Panther (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Afrofuturism, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Erik Logic Is The Best Logic, Multi, Politics, Polyamory, Polygamy, Supernatural Elements, This Is Not A Coercive Band-aid, Time Travel Fix-It, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:26:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26061136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BabaTunji/pseuds/BabaTunji
Summary: Erik dies and then he wakes up in Oakland, California months before the day his dad dies. Things go a bit differently.
Relationships: Erik Killmonger & N'Jobu, Erik Killmonger & T'Chaka, Erik Killmonger & T'Challa, Erik Killmonger & Ulysses Klaue, Erik Killmonger & W'Kabi
Comments: 5
Kudos: 24





	this jackal doesn't need to hide

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in a haze in the middle of august or so, I want to see where it goes.

Held up to the light

I got cracks, they're gonna catch your eye

She said, she don't mind

She said, she don't mind

I'm held up with a light

I'm a loser, black and blue inside

She said, she don't mind

She said, she don't mind

She said, you don't need excuses

I take what you give, even when you're useless

S'all good, s'all good, s'all good now

S'all good, s'all good, s'all good now

S'all good, s'all good, s'all good now

Held up to the light

But it's warm now, don't criticize

She said, she's all mine

She said, she's all mine

Hell, I don't know why

But this Jackal doesn't need to hide

She treats him so kind

She said, she don't mind

She said, you don't need excuses

I take what you give, even when you're useless

- Cracks by Couros

The street where Erik wakes up is empty. Yet in the night light he recognizes it immediately and proceeds to lose his mind. It's not obvious of course, if you were a random passer-by you would think he was just another homeless person or drunkard the way he was slumped in the alleyway. After the disbelief fades—was this supposed to be the after life or had someone dumped him here? He starts to gather information. He's not wearing the suit he died in, instead a long sleeve shirt and jeans. The more he wanders the street in a neighborhood miles away from where he spent most of his formative years the more the words: *what the fuck* cycle in his mind.

He doesn't have money, no ID, no phone and as he moves he starts to see landmarks of things that didn't fit anymore. A restaurant that went out of business when he was a kid still, standing and more discrepancies with the bizarre world he seemed to be in. It has him questioning everything that happened before, had it just been a dream or was this the dream? A new hallucination while he was in a cryo-tank somewhere? His scars are still there and he digs into his skin to check if he could still feel pain—he could. 

His uncertainty makes him avoid any and all of the other people he encounters, growing with the lightening of the sky. He's probably been walking for hours, trying to make sense of what had happened and what currently is. Eventually he bites the bullet and enters a coffee shop he passes. Not to get anything though he probably should eat something soon, but to check the date. He stares at the newspaper next to a nearby booth for much too long. Ignoring the stares of the waiter that tries to seat him and the other patrons.

The year is 1992 and if this newspaper, and the billboards, and the other landmarks he's noticed weren't some fucked up joke—4 months before his father dies. He exits the coffeeshop as fast as he enters and keeps walking. Mind whirring with calculations, explanations and rebuttals each time. Why was he here? Why wasn't he dead? He should be dead, his cousin killed him. After he got carried away and made the sort of mistakes he should never have in the first place. He can only guess how they managed to revive a body he tossed over the waterfall and the entire thing irks him. More than 15 years leading up to one moment and he failed.

He smiles bitterly, walking faster as if it would help escape his dark thoughts. Now he was here, as if he time traveled. Something he didn't think was possible, not like this anyway. 

Not unless this is what happened to everyone when they died? No—that didn't make sense he still had memories from before. Now that he thought about it, he should probably write down. If this place wasn't just a very well developed illusion. If it truly was a past dimension then maybe... maybe he could affect things—change things. Like his dad's death or aunt Jamie's house being taken or... He stops walking when he realizes he's being followed. He pretends not to notice and focuses on where he was in the city. Curses under his breath and does an assessment of his surroundings. He counts at least 2 people on his tail. He didn't have anything valuable on him, no wallet, just his dad's... He sighs. The chain. If it was real it was definitely worth the effort whoever was following him was about to put in. They probably thought it was their lucky day too, him wandering out this far alone and unaware. 

He lets them get closer, pretending to stop and act lost. It's when he literally *hears* the punch coming that he realizes, twisting out of the way and moving much faster than he should be able to, blood rising in sick triumph—he still had the herb. Wakanda's special herb, reserved for it's Black Panthers was still running in his veins, the super strength, heightened speed and senses he experienced for just 3 days, he still had it. Even without that beating up two would be muggers wouldn't be a big deal anyway but with that... Well it turns from an uneven fight to a disgusting beat down. At the last moment, when he's pressing one of their knives to the man that wasn't already unconscious, he decides not to make another kill. 

He doesn't know his environment (how much of his previous knowledge is actually true was to be seen) and more ironically it didn't feel right. He'd killed before, on orders or for convenience but these two strangers weren't proper enemies or even targets. Just unlucky enough to try and rob him. He pulls the knife away and searches both bodies. Digs up a pitiful bit of cash, no gun or anything useful naturally and leaves them on the street. With the money he goes to buy breakfast.

He eats slowly at a window table facing the tiny black owned restaurant's entrance and thinks over what he could do. The fight while too brief helped him shake off his shock a bit. Yes, he failed and died. But he didn't have to fail and die a second time. Heck this might go much better than the first time, if he played his cards right and didn't jump the gun or fuck if up. With black coffee on his tongue and food in his belly he finally let's himself think of his dad. Probably not *his* dad if any of the theories he's heard about dimensions and time travel were correct. But a version of his dad, who was alive and not yet dead—probably. He would need to check and see what was happening currently and if things were the way he remembered it.

It feels like a second chance, it feels like the worst sort of second chance. For all he knew he could do everything right and his daddy still died, or was already dead or... He shuts down the thoughts about death and dying and focuses on making a list. Things he needed to do, if he was really here in this time and space. If he really wouldn't wake up from a dream any minute now. Number 1. Find out the status of his dad. Number 2... He stalls on number 2, what would happen if he met younger him or something happened to younger him? Would the universe act weird? Would this new work stop? Would he die? He needed to figure out that too. Number 3. Klaue. The man was still alive and robbing Wakanda of his past memories were correct. But soon something would go wrong and he would be caught. His escape leading a bloody trail right back to Erik's dad.

This is something Erik thought alot about after puzzling out the entire story in his teens and then having it confirmed by Klaue himself when they worked together. Klaue stole several ton of pure vibranium successfully before the attempt where he was caught. His agreement with N'Jobu was that he got a percentage and only after N'Jobu began the longer process of fashioning the raw vibranium into weapons, which would sell much higher than the raw mineral itself. Something his dad never got a chance to do and which left Klaue with a fortune in pure vibranium. 

If Klaue hadn't fucked up—got greedy is Erik's assumption here—that one time, when would Wakanda even have realized someone had been stealing? Erik has a hunch that it would have taken much longer and given his dad more time to get his plans off the ground. So, it might make the most sense to kill Klaue first. What his dad had now would have to do, that or find a way to prevent what happened before from happening again. He doesn't have enough information on Klaue so he moves on to the next goal. His mother. Lisa Stevens wasn't in prison just yet and if he has his way she would never end up in prison.

But first he needed to get money. Money for a fake ID, then he could move on to falsifying records and creating the personas he would use. This world already had an Erik Stevens, he would have to be someone else. Years of working as an operative, often with no backup and just his knowledge to go off makes the first two straightforward. The lack of far reaching digitization makes it even easier. He manages most of it by himself before finding a counterfeiter for the last parts involving social security numbers. Maybe he's being over cautious but after dying it doesn't feel like enough. His knowledge was only as good as the timeline's integrity to the one he knew and messing it up too much would make everything harder not easier. Erik builds up 3 identities over the course of his first week.

The first identity is what he plans to use to make contact with his dad. An African intellectual who was a friend of a friend with roots on the east coast and no close associates or family in Oakland. Someone his mom might think she remembered from college and someone his dad would be able to trust eventually. The second and third identities he builds for access. A scraper with no prospects and a record to handle Klaue when the time came and a respectable blue-collar professional to fall back on depending on the situation. 

Once he has his identities, he focuses on getting more money and doing reconnaissance on N'Jobu and his family. That's when he really starts to notice certain things. He wrote down as much as he could remember for the year in a notebook on his second day and as he remembers he adds to it—but there are a few minor but glaring differences to what he remembers. It's not enough to make him doubt what he knows just enough for him to question if this wasn't just a very similar dimension or timeline to the one, he first lived. 

Lisa Stevens isn't an adjunct professor like she'd been in his first timeline, they didn't have the beat-up blue Chevy he remembers and Zuri or rather his persona, "James" acts differently. Apart from that things are the same he thinks but can't know for sure till he makes contact. He won't say he's scared to make contact just very reluctant. Depending on how he did N'Jobu would trust him more or less and he needed as much trust as possible if he wanted to expose Zuri as the spy he was and steer things differently. In the meantime, he sinks into the identities he's created and does more research. 

He bets on sports for cash, robs gang bangers and engages in what would be very reckless activity if he didn't have the herb backing him up. 

One week turns into two and Erik racks up cash and knowledge of the world around him. He also starts thinking of making a Wakandan identity. He wants to be prepared for anything and explaining his war dog tattoo was part of it. Unlike making American identities which was easy, making a Wakandan identity is hard. He doesn't know enough of Wakanda or the family tree to insert himself somewhere convenient and in the end he decides to use the story that would make most sense. He had been adopted by a Wakandan war dog, he didn't know their real identity and eventually they were recalled back to Wakanda leaving him and his mother who died. Since then he's been chasing any lead he could find on Wakanda which led him to N'Jobu. With luck he would never have to fall back on this story but Erik wants to be prepared anyway.


End file.
